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Case Number 24
At precisely 10:01 PM, on February 11, 1994, officers of the Cape Coral, Florida, Police Department responded to a domestic violence call that ultimately led to the department’s first officer-involved shooting in its 25-year history, followed by a five-year legal battle. In a crisis such as this, the immediate demands placed upon an agency’s command staff and investigators can easily become overwhelming. Are the officers safe? Is support being provided to the officers? Whom do you notify? Who has charge of the investigation? Do you take the officer’s firearm? If you do, when do you take it? The questions are endless. What you do, or more importantly, what you fail to do, will be subjected to incessant review by innumerable "experts." As the command officer charged with the responsibility of managing this scene, I was faced with these very questions. In fact, the questions began during the first notification telephone call and several subsequent cellular calls before I even arrived at the shooting location. Looking for guidance, I requested the on-duty Watch Commander have a copy of the department’s General Orders brought to the scene, along with a never-before-used check-off sheet and form that was designed for officer-involved shootings during our initial CALEA accreditation period in 1987-89. As the Accreditation Manager at that time, I remembered thinking, "Why do we need to do this? We’ve never had a shooting and probably never will." Now, seven years later, I was thankful to have compiled this resource during a calm period, because this shooting scene was becoming increasingly hectic by the minute. The Watch Commander briefed me on what had already been done, what still needed to be done, and other concerns. Together, we reviewed the applicable General Orders, assigned specific tasks to on-scene personnel, and began the painstaking process of investigating the incident. In this specific case, the officers were not injured -- two continue to work for our agency, while the third recently retired after years of distinguished service to the community. After what seemed like an eternity, the on-scene investigation was completed, statements transcribed, and a final report written. Now the administrative concerns began, for with the death of an aggressor come years of legal action in both federal and state courts. The police department, the individual officers, and the chief of police were all named as defendants in several lawsuits filed in the courts. Almost three years after the shooting, the Federal Middle District Court of Florida granted the City of Cape Coral a summary judgment. Unsatisfied with the ruling of the Federal Court, eighteen months later the plaintiff (the estate of the decedent) filed another lawsuit in the state court. Again, the city was granted a summary judgment. Still not satisfied, the plaintiff appealed to the State Appellate Court, which concurred with the lower court and upheld the summary judgment. This was 5½ years after that February evening. Throughout the hours and hours of depositions, testimony, and motions, the written policies of the Cape Coral Police Department were subject to extreme scrutiny. Those policies and forms developed ten years earlier, during our initial CALEA accreditation self-assessment phase, were dissected word for word. Our compliance with those policies was the subject of microscopic examination by the lawyers and the courts. The common theme that emanated from these legal proceedings was that our policies were sufficient, that the department maintained the policies, that the policies were adhered to, and that routine training described in the policies was indeed provided. The officers’ actions and the department’s post-shooting response received many accolades from the attorneys responsible for representing the city’s interest. Much of this praise, especially relating to the post-shooting response, was directly attributable to the accreditation process that we entered into in 1987. When a law enforcement executive asks, "Why do we need to do this?" he or she need only be reminded that the policies developed by the Cape Coral Police Department during its self-assessment phase in 1987, that were the source of countless hours of refresher training, proved their worth 12 years later, in 1999, after the plaintiff had exhausted all avenues of civil litigation surrounding the incident, and the city had been granted summary judgments in all courts of law. My advice is this: take the time to prepare for the inevitable crisis in a controlled setting, for when the crisis rears its ugly head, it is too late to plan. There are numerous planning tools available to senior management. One of the most effective is the self-assessment portion of the CALEA accreditation process, which will provide invaluable assistance to any agency in the planning and development of sound policies.
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